Shakespeare's Birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon Waterside loop from Stratford-upon-Avon
Shakespeare's Birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon Waterside loop from Stratford-upon-Avon
5.0
(4)
164
riders
Shakespeare's Birthplace – Stratford-upon-Avon Waterside loop from Stratford-upon-Avon
02:08
44.8km
300m
Road cycling
Moderate road ride. Good fitness required. Mostly well-paved surfaces and easy to ride. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.
Last updated: July 22, 2026
Tips
Cycling is not permitted along parts of this route
After 772 m for 136 m
After 1.48 km for 97 m
Waypoints
Start point
Train Station
Get Directions
788 m
Shakespeare's Birthplace
Highlight • Historical Site
Tip by
1.15 km
Stratford-upon-Avon High Street
Highlight • Historical Site
In 1863 major alterations resulted in a Hall very much as you see it today. Ill fate dogged it again in 1946 when fire, started from a cigarette, completely gutted the beautifully proportioned Ballroom, when a valuable painting by Gainsborough of David Garrick was destroyed.
The Town Hall houses many interesting and historic paintings and treasures and it is unsurprising that today smoking is definitely not permitted.
(stratford-tc.gov.uk/town-hall/history--of-the-town-hall)
Tip by
1.51 km
Stratford-upon-Avon Waterside
Highlight • Rest Area
Tip by
1.58 km
Bancroft Basin
Highlight • River
8.61 km
Loxley Church
Highlight • Other
Tip by
9.09 km
Wellesbourne Wood
Forest
10.6 km
Touchdown Café, Wellesbourne Airfield
Highlight • Cafe
Tip by
12.2 km
Charlecote Park
Highlight • Historical Site
Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result.
From 1605 to 1640 the house was organised by Sir Thomas Lucy. He had twelve children with Lady Alice Lucy who ran the house after he died. She was known for her piety and distributing alms to the poor each Christmas. Her eldest three sons inherited the house in turn and it then fell to her grandchild Sir Davenport Lucy.
In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands (excluding Roman legionnaires). The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust's Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a "black page boy". In 1735 a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.
The lands immediately adjoining the house were further landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760. This resulted in Charlecote becoming a hostelry destination for notable tourists to Stratford from the late 17th to mid-18th century, including Washington Irving (1818), Sir Walter Scott (1828) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (c 1850).
Charlecote was inherited in 1823 by George Hammond Lucy (d 1845), who married Mary Elizabeth Williams of Bodelwyddan Castle, from whose extensive diaries the current "behind the scenes of Victorian Charlecote" are based upon. GH Lucy's second son Henry inherited the estate from his elder brother in 1847. After the deaths of both Mary Elizabeth and Henry in 1890, the house was rented out by Henry's eldest daughter and heiress, Ada Christina (d 1943). She had married Sir Henry Ramsay-Fairfax, (d 1944), a line of the Fairfax Baronets, who on marriage assumed the name Fairfax-Lucy.
From this point onwards, the family began selling off parts of the outlying estate to fund their extensive lifestyle, and post-World War II in 1946, Sir Montgomerie Fairfax-Lucy, who had inherited the residual estate from his mother Ada, presented Charlecote to the National Trust in-lieu of death duties. Sir Montgomerie was succeeded in 1965 by his brother, Sir Brian, whose wife, Lady Alice, researched the history of Charlecote, and assisted the National Trust with the restoration of the house.
Tip by
12.6 km
Hampton Lucy to Charlecote Scenic Route
Highlight (Segment) • Trail
Tip by
16.5 km
Hampton Wood & Meadow
Forest
44.8 km
End point
Train Station
Way Types & Surfaces
Way Types
40.3 km
1.91 km
1.69 km
385 m
255 m
174 m
< 100 m
Surfaces
30.9 km
13.3 km
309 m
194 m
< 100 m
Sign up to see more specific route details
Sign up for free
Elevation
Highest point (120 m)
Lowest point (40 m)
Sign up to see more specific route details
Sign up for free
Weather
Powered by Foreca
Wednesday 22 July
28°C
13°C
0 %
Additional weather tips
Max wind speed: 10.0 km/h
to get more detailed weather forecasts along your route
Our route recommendations are based on thousands of hikes, rides, and runs completed by other people on komoot.
Comments
Want to know more?
Sign up for a free komoot account to join the conversation.
Sign up for free